


Before the Storm

by QueenyMidas



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, First War with Voldemort, Friendship/Love, Gen, Love, M/M, Pre-War, Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2017-12-30 11:33:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1018119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenyMidas/pseuds/QueenyMidas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of the one year where war was only an abstract threat that soon turned to reality. Before that fateful night in 1981 quite a bit happened, and young graduates tried their best to build their lives (under the impression that they would have lives) after Hogwarts in terms of careers, marriages, and starting families. Remus/Sirius, James/Lily, Peter/Mary MacDonald. Explicit in some chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Moony and Padfoot

**Author's Note:**

> This is for thesecreteater! Happy birthday, my favorite tumblr follower, and may you have a year full of werewolves and wizardry. :)

**Chapter 1: Padfoot and Moony**

   Remus opened his eyes before his brain could even process where he was or why he was there in the first place. The morning sun hurt his eyes, so he snapped them back shut immediately after.

   This also turned out to be a bad decision, since it awakened the headache that had been waiting to pounce on Remus and make him miserable, as headaches after full moons were like to do. Yes! There it was. Remus had figured out where he was even if it was an unhappy answer.

   The next expected sensation was a full-body muscle ache and burning wherever he’d scratched himself, but instead he got a wet, hot tongue running up his cheek. “Blech.”

   Padfoot nudged at his boyfriend’s cheek with his nose before licking him again. Doggy kisses were his specialty, and he more or less wanted to cover Remus’ face in them until the pain went away.

   Sirius’ dog-brain explained his logic quite nicely: ‘ _Remus! Love Moony. Remus lick Remus bark kiss face Remus not hurt anymore. Lick.’_

   “You’re disgusting,” Remus tried as Sirius padded over to better be able to lick Remus’ nose. Most things that he and Sirius did were objectively disgusting (including the shabby flat they occupied), though, so he let this slide. “Are you okay? I didn’t… I didn’t hurt you or anything?”

   Sirius just continued to lick his face, so Remus considered that was a hardy: ‘ _No, Remus! No, Moony! I love you!_ ’.

   The only reason he’d even asked—him hurting Padfoot while shifted was rare, like the wolf knew he liked the many behind the crazed dog persona—was because it was one of their first full moons alone. No Peter, no James.

   The latter had gone to meet Miss Lily Evans’ parents, which required a weekend stay at their house and for James to actually look presentable for once in his life. Before leaving, James had hoped and prayed that Lily’s sister was as beautiful as she was so he knew the genepool he intended to marry into was strong, but when he arrived he had sent Sirius an owl describing her sister as much to the contrary. James still wanted to marry Lily, though. Even if there was a small chance they’d have bird-like and squat children.

   The former had been working later at his father’s tailoring shop when Sirius owled to let him know that he could handle Remus and the wolf on his own that night. Exhausted and wildly happy to be relieved of duty, Peter had fallen asleep on top of his sewing kit and the letter immediately after reading it.

   “Good morning,” Sirius murmured once he shifted back. He grabbed the blanket he kept stored on full moons and ceremoniously draped it over the other man, who looked positively savage with his hair mussed, dirt stains all over him, and crispy fall leaves beneath him.

   Remus sighed. He’d almost forgotten that he had been in the woods naked and unconscious for a while there. “Yes, yes, good morning,” he murmured, feeling a splinter wedged in his left foot throb. “I don’t think I broke anything.”

   Small victories, Sirius decided, was what he was going to have to live with. “Good.”

   “Though I do feel like there’s an entire unchewed rabbit in my stomach.”

   “Oh, Moony. That’s because there is,” Sirius told him while suppressing a smile. “You okay to walk?”

   Remus nodded before forcing himself to sit up. His lower back felt like it had been thrown in a washing machine before being neatly sewn back into Remus. “Yes, I’m fine.”

   As Sirius, shirtless in the middle of the woods, helped Remus to his feet it became very clear what a huge lie that was. “What happened to your left leg? Twisted ankle?” He didn’t remember seeing that as Padfoot.

   “No, it’s just a stupid splinter,” Remus said, leaning up against Sirius for stability. His head was pounding like a bitch, but they really needed to get home without splinching before Remus’ wounds could be treated.

   How dare that splinter. How dare that little sliver of wood think it was worthy of Remus’ foot? Sirius could not see the justice in that, so he had to right the wrong that existed in his world. Even though Sirius’ legs were bruised and battered beneath his trousers, he bent over to scoop Remus up.

   A squeak escaped Remus, but the strength was gone from him. He couldn’t even advise Sirius to stop being an idiot and put him down because his brain still swam in his skull. He tried his best, though. “Hey, you’ll hurt yourself.”

   “Nope,” Sirius said proudly. His shoulder-length hair fell around him in dark curls that made him look rather distinctly like the dirty hippie he truly was, but there was nothing Sirius loved more than putting on a macho bravado in front of Remus. Half of the fun was that Remus knew there was nothing macho about him. “Portkey is nearby; you picked a convenient place to drop last night.”

   “Wonderful.”

   After carrying Remus, draped in a blanket like some sort of saint, to the Portkey (a Keats poetry book), things became infinitely easier.

   A sudden gale whisked them where they stood. Well, where Sirius stood and Remus hung in his arms. The usual sensation dug its claws into the couple and the book they both held between them until the world stopped spinning and they found themselves in their homey, dingy flat.

   Because of its small size, Sirius had no problem carrying Remus into their room and laying him down on the bed. Remus hit the mattress with a grateful groan.

   With a thud, Sirius collapsed beside him.

   “Urghk,” he announced eloquently.

   “Urghk,” Remus echoed empathetically.

   Where Peter and James’ ‘urghks’ were expected there was silence. It felt Highly Unholy and Sacrilegious to Sirius. The Marauders were his life. He was in love with one and a brother to the other two.

   Living somewhere aside from the dorm the four of them—and Frank Longbottom, bless his soul—was strange.

   That wasn’t to say it was bad, since he and Remus could shag and shag and shag and nobody would walk in on them and yell ‘Moony, Padfoot! Put some clothes on, for Merlin’s sake!’. Sirius got to share a bed with Remus, and they got to make their own meals before heading to work. Then, they could home and shag some more without any curfew or adult supervision. They were the adults now.

   “We’re adults,” Sirius reminded Remus with a mumble into their mattress.

   “We pay taxes.”

   “We could adopt a kitty and nobody would stop us.”

   “Sirius,” Remus groaned. He was always on his back about a goddamn kitty.

   They barely had enough in Gringotts to keep the apartment. Sirius was still in training to become an Auror (meaning he got a salary, but not as big of a salary as the real Aurors), and Remus was working on a team of research coordinators that studied the genetic effects of vampirism on muggle bodies. Sure, that wasn’t Remus’ dream job, but one requirement for becoming a teacher was a background test which he was almost sure to fail.

   It was the eighties and Remus was a gay, pot-smoking werewolf. He lived in poverty, dressed like a typical homosexual (the sweater vests were really a dead giveaway), and was covered in mysterious scars. Those were not exactly the traits of someone qualified to be around children, according to the Wizarding Board of Education.

   One day, maybe the tides of discrimination would lessen. Maybe there would be a cure for lycanthropy, maybe they would finally legalize same-sex marriage… One day.

   “We can’t afford a kitty.” Yes, that was what they had been talking about.

   “We could just feed it table scraps and make it go outside to go to the bathroom so we don’t even need kitty litter. What in the hell are we saving money for?”

   “Rent.”

   “Okay, yeah, we have to pay rent and buy groceries, but after that we’ve still got money left over.” Sirius wrapped his arm around Remus’s waist, carefully avoiding fresh scars. He kissed the shell of Remus’ ear, hoping to seduce his way to having a furry friend for Padfoot. “Enough for me to take you on a nice dinner every once and awhile, get some new clothes, adopt a cat from a shelter…”

   Remus really did not need this after a night of wolfing out. The dead rabbit in his stomach was also settling pretty nastily. “Sirius, it makes sense to save galleons right now. What if one of us gets hurt and has to stay at the hospital? We have to have a stockpile, just in case.”

   “You sound exactly like your father.”

   “Shut up,” Remus sighed. His father was the king of knut-pinching since the Lupins had never been affluent. “I love you, now shut up.”

   “You know what would shut me up?”

   “Oh my god.”

   “A wonderful fuzz-ball of love and kitty-ness.”

   Remus rested his cheek on a nearby pillow so he could get a better look at Sirius. “You’re literally unbearable.”

   “I’ll make you breakfast,” Sirius offered.

   Oh, please. Was this second year? Remus Lupin knew how to bargain with Sirius Black and that was the bare minimum offer.

   “I’ll give you a nice warm bath and massage your shoulders.”

   Remus narrowed his eyes.

   “I’ll give you so much sex that your cock falls off.”

   “You’re insane.”

   “Is that a yes?” Sirius asked, eyes wide and filled with hope. Even though Remus had built up a tolerance to his bargaining skills, the puppy eyes got him every time. Remus was a weak, weak man in the face of love.

   “We’re getting bargain brand cat food, and you have to deal with the litter box,” he gave in.

   A wide smile spread on Sirius’ face as soon as Remus made that sad, relenting sigh before speaking. Sirius couldn’t help it, he just pounced on the other man in their bed.

   “ _Ow_.”

   “You’re the best Moony in the world!” Sirius told him eagerly before digging his hands into Remus’ hair to haul him in for a kiss. They both hadn’t shaved and had stubble all over, but that somehow almost made it better.

   Sirius was definitely sticking his knee against a blooming bruise that Remus had, but Remus had had worse. He’d grown up with Sirius, James, and Peter. Roughhousing wasn’t new to him, and he wasn’t going to let it get in the way of kissing the most gorgeous and wonderful bloke to ever stick his knee in a bruise on the face of the earth.

   Remus loved him. Oh, he was so hopeless for him. Sirius had impossibly soft black hair that looked perfect without any styling whatsoever, a pair of positively gleaming silver eyes, and a fit body to top it all off. Sirius blackened the eyes of people who insulted Remus and spat on the idea of pureblood supremacy, a physical firestorm when he was angry. That same fire came out when he kissed Remus for quite a different reason that Remus was even fonder of.

   And then there was that Special Sirius Something. The confidence that drew women to him like he was a magnet, and the suave ability to reject them all in a way that made them fall more in love. Everything Sirius touched turned to gold, and he didn’t even have to try.

   Remus, on the other hand, tried. He tried so hard. Life felt like an uphill climb for him and while Sirius certainly had the demons of his parents in his head that would never prevent him from acting normal in public.

   Remus twisted in strange positions to hide scars in the right light. He wore layers of clothes to cover himself, and only let Sirius see what was underneath. As a stark contrast, Sirius was most comfortable stark naked. He loved his body and so did Remus, and for some reason Sirius was the only one around who liked Remus’ body.

   “I’m the only Moony in the world,” Remus reminded Sirius as if Sirius would ever take a compliment back.

   “And you’re my favorite,” he repeated, nosing his cheek. “Now, how about I make you some waffles before I treat you to a dip in the tub.”

   With a content and utterly enamored sigh, Remus ducked down to give him another kiss. “That would make you my favorite Padfoot in the whole world.”

   “Damn right it would,” he teased before giving Remus’ arm a squeeze and hopping out of bed, shedding his trousers now that they were alone. Sirius liked to claim he cooked better naked, and Remus certainly didn’t mind the view—and it was funny as hell when he tried to cook bacon shirtless and the hot grease bubbles popped to splash on Sirius.

   Wrapping himself even further in the blankets—the one from the woods and the sheets of their bed—Remus nuzzled himself into a cocoon of warmth, making Sirius be the one to get the owl message from James that arrived shortly after.


	2. Food (The Important Stuff)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love switching between writing Draco/Harry and Remus/Sirius. Their dynamics can be similar at times (the bickering, oh the bickering!) but they’re such different couples that I get the best of both worlds with them. This chapter is for Antonia because what’s cooler than being cool? Wolfstar.

**Chapter 2: Food (The Important Stuff)**

   James, quoting Peter Pettigrew (The Sandwich Expert), proclaimed: “Sandwiches complete me.”

   That was the thing about having such a tight group of friends. Phrases got exchanged, bizarre sayings became jokes, and it was as if they altered the English language to fit their own needs. Were someone from the outside to sit in and listen to a conversation between James and Sirius at their zaniest, they would be entirely in the dark.

   Consequently, most of their fellow Aurors-in-training had been witness to these rantings and ravings of the two men who preferred the term ‘soulbrothers’ to describe their relationship.

   _“Are you two…?” one of the women they were training with had asked them after seeing them sparring in the gym while screaming obscenities at one another. “It’s okay if you are! I have a sister who is. I’m just wondering.”_

_Sirius and James had quite literally dropped to the floor with laughter._

_“Oh, oh hell! I knew it, I knew I could turn you, Prongs!”_

_“You wish!” James chortled and gave him a playful punch. “I have better taste than you! Remus is really aiming low, you know.”_

_Sirius punched him back, still laughing. The trainee that had asked them a question in the first place immediately found herself regretting it. “Er…”_

_“So fucking rude, Sirius. I can’t take you anywhere. Sorry, Anna, that’s your name, right?”_

_“Avani.”_

_“Now who’s rude?” Sirius had chided. “Anyway, Avani, James here is ever so unfortunately heterosexual. Take pity on his mortal soul.”_

_Oh, Avani was definitely regretting this. “You two have fun, then…” she murmured as she walked away, rolling her eyes. What happened to all the normal blokes in the world? These two were out of their minds._

   Still, that kind of insanity grew on their fellow trainees to see them more as amusing allies than anything else. The fact that they knew how to throw around a defensive spell was also a plus.

   Sirius dug into his own lunch that Remus had made that morning. Turkey wrap with cheese, just the way he liked it, and a little note inside Sirius’ bag thanking him for the day after his full moon. Sirius may have come off as cocky about how great of a boyfriend he was, but that reminder made an insecure part of him swell.

   When James finished the last bite of his sandwich it was like losing a friend and lover. “Goodbye, sweet sandwich,” he sighed after he swallowed.

   Sirius shook his head. “First you’re trying to see if Lily’s sister is hot and now you’re cheating on her with rye bread. You’re the dog in this relationship.”

   “I just was curious! Come on. Perfect, beautiful girl like Lily Evans, you at least expect the sister to be somewhat similar,” James sighed. “You know for a fact that if Remus had a brother you would be all over that, especially if he was older.”

   “This is not about my older men issues,” Sirius chastised. If he wasn’t so hopelessly committed to Remus, there would most likely be one hell of a May-December fling going on instead. “This is about you and Lilyflower.”

   “ _Lilyflower_ —“ James really only used that name as a joke with Sirius, a reminder of the time when James was so romantically clueless that he thought nicknames would get him into Lily’s pants. “Is the prettiest, smartest bird in the whole universe. Not even her relatives measure up, and that was the point I was making.”

   “Wow.”

   “Shut it.”

   Sirius flicked his nose in response. “Whatever. I have exciting news.”

   “You’re pregnant?” James guessed flatly.

   “Yes. Remus and I are expecting a whole litter of puppies this fall. If you’re lucky, we might name one after you.”

   “’James Lupin’,” James tried aloud. There was no doubt in James’ mind that Padfoot would ditch that pesky, pureblood last name of his the second he got the chance. “Okay, but really.”

   “But really, you guessed sort of closely. Remus and I are going to adopt a kitten,” Sirius announced proudly. “And we are not naming him after you.”

   James gasped in mock-offense. “We’re no longer soulbrothers. I’m breaking up with you.”

   “The make-up sex is worth it,” Sirius teased, making them both laugh before the Auror training them seemed to appear before them without warning. Living in a world with magic was slightly terrifying at times.

   Instructor Rosenthal. Her blonde hair drawn back in a high ponytail, the instructor nodded instead of verbally greeting her protégées. She needed a moment to investigate what was going on, to put her Auror skills she was always stressing to use.

   Two men who were suspiciously close were goofing off because they’d finished their lunch. Yes, the evidence all led to that conclusion.

   “Take five laps around the track,” she told them, face still somber as ever. “And this time, no transforming into animagi. I’m sure you can run as a deer and sprint as a dog, but Aurors are human.” Something about that was sort of threatening and biased against other creatures—why weren’t Aurors also werewolves, centaurs, and dryads?—and Sirius didn’t appreciate it one bit.

   He ran quickly as a grim, and Padfoot’s nose picked up on all sorts of hints. There were advantages to not being human that he thought were obvious. “You see, though, four legs—“

   “Six laps,” she cut him off.

   “Hey!” Sirius grew more frustrated. He hated when people didn’t listen to him. “That’s not—“

   “Seven laps.”

   “Let it go, Padfoot,” James murmured to him, legs already aching from the strain.

   “Eight laps.”

   James made a face. “I wasn’t even trying to—“

   “Nine laps.”

   “Merlin’s bullocks,” Sirius sighed.

   “Ten,” Rosenthal finished off. “I’d suggest you get started on them now.”

   Sirius opened his mouth to speak again before James used his hand as a makeshift muzzle and gave his friend a _look_.

   In silent rebellion, Sirius bit his hand.

   “Ow!”

   “Eleven.”

   “Seriously?” James sighed.

   “Twelve.”

   With a frustrated, exasperated sigh, James hauled Sirius away by his wrist across the grassy training field before getting onto the track and cursing him the whole twelve ways around.

xxxXxxx

   Lily was unsympathetic to James’ pleas through years of practice, and she didn’t intend to give into his whining just because she was his fiancée.

   “Come on, Lily, please do it for me?”

   “Nope,” she answered with a little smile. Lily was busy stirring the half-moon noodles of the macaroni and cheese with Peter next to her dutifully heating up the precious cheese itself.

   Remus was understandably tired so Lily had excused him from any sort of dinner duties—plus, she had a bit of a soft spot for Remus since he understood what it was like to date a Marauder—but Sirius and James were just going to have to suck it up.

   James had been assigned to set the table while Sirius elected to pour their glasses of water and cheap wine to alternate between during the low-budget meal.

   “But she made us run. It was all Sirius’ fault,” James protested. His head was in Remus’ lap and he was looking for some sympathy.

   “It always is,” Remus nodded sagely without any intention of letting James off of the hook. “But,” he rolled James off of him and onto the floor with a heavy thud. “Alas. The table doesn’t set itself.”

   James groaned helplessly into the wood floor before garnering the strength to stand. It was truly an Amazing and Heroic feat. “I hate all of you except Pete. Let’s run away together, Wormtail.”

   “No thanks,” Peter grinned. “If you can’t handle running a few laps at work then I don’t think we’ll make it on the fly.”

   Work. It was weird to think of being an Auror as James’ job; at least it was for James. He’d really only gotten a vague idea of what he wanted to do with his life in fifth year when McGonagall had forced him into a Serious Talk about his future during one detention in late spring, and all James knew he wanted was to do something good. Something important, something just.

   That detention felt like yesterday to James. It seemed that all of a sudden he was working, that he’d had no time to adjust from being a lazy schoolboy to a full-fledged adult who _worked_.

   “Correction: I hate you all,” James decided before pouting excessively and getting out the steel cutlery from the drawers that Remus’ mum had given to him and Sirius when they moved in.

   “So grouchy before he eats,” Sirius sighed. “Lily, you are an angel for putting up with this and promising to put up with it for an eternity.”

   Lily laughed while she strained the macaroni. “Yes. I am an angel, but James also had to put up with my parents and sister for the past few days so I think he’s ordained in some manner.”

   Remus snorted. Anyone else complaining about in-law trouble was honestly adorable compared to his situation with Walburga and Orion. They referred to Remus solely as ‘the half-breed’ as Regulus sometimes reported to Remus, and that was even if they deigned to speak of Sirius—the disappointment son.

   “Dinner’s ready,” Peter announced jovially. He was always bringing the group back to the important stuff: food.

   “And the table is set,” Lily observed, giving James’ arm a squeeze before sitting down around the odd assortment of mismatched chairs that rested at Remus and Sirius’ table. If they wanted to host bigger crowds, each guest was provided to bring a chair if they wanted to sit on something other than the floor.

   Once Sirius put the glasses in place everything was finally perfect. The Marauders-plus-Lily took their place at the rickety, wooden table.

   “Who wants to say grace?” Sirius asked with that classic smart-arse grin of his. None of them were religious in the slightest.

   Remus played along with the joke. “I will,” he declared with a markedly feigned solemnity before taking Sirius’ hand and James’ since they were on opposite sides of him. The rest of his friends followed suit, bowing their heads and clasping hands to form a circle.

   “Thank you Lord for this bargain-brand food, the paper plates it’s served on, and the cockroach I found in the sink this morning,” he began, getting a chuckle out of Sirius. Sirius had unsurprisingly also wanted to keep the cockroach as a pet.

   “Thank you for the shittiest British Prime Minister you could possibly cook up and an equally incompetent Ministry of Magic,” Remus went on. The disdain for The Iron Lady ran deep in the hippy Marauders. “And thank you for the morons that let Thatcher go on with her racism, homophobia, internalized misogyny, and all related causes.”

   Lily nodded along with Remus like a gospel-woman at church. It was all one-hundred percent faked which was where the humor came from, since Lily Evans (soon-to-be Potter) was a raging liberal as was everyone else at the table.

   “Thank you for all of our low-level jobs and finally: bless this food with your non-existent powers so I can end this before it gets cold. Amen.”

   “Amen,” everyone echoed and dug in.

   A question that had been pushing at Peter’s lips finally came out when he swallowed his first massive forkful of macaroni and cheese. “So you two were really alright for the moon on your own?” He’d felt sort of guilty about the whole thing even though he knew things weren’t like they had been at Hogwarts.

   James and Lily were getting married and Peter knew Remus and Sirius were getting married as soon as it was actually legal. Sadly, Peter also knew there were things in marital bonds that Peter knew Marauder bonds couldn’t match up to.

   Remus would always know more about Sirius than Peter would, and Lily would always have jokes with James that Peter didn’t understand.

   It was only natural for Sirius to be the one there for Remus during full moons since (hopefully) they would own a house together one day and be handling full moons within the little Lupin family they’d form.

   Still, Peter and James were there just in case and it was their first time letting Sirius deal with Moony on his own so Wormtail decided he had the right to worry a little.

   “Yeah,” Sirius nodded, looking to Remus to make sure that was the truth. He really wanted to be doing right for Moony.

   Remus thankfully nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I’m still in one piece, after all,” he told them with a cordial smile. He was safe talking about this with them, he knew that, and they actually cared about what his answers to their questions were. “Enough about me, though. Wolf-business as usual and all that. How about what’s going on with you all?”

   “I couldn’t have sex for three days because of the visit with Lily’s family,” James announced.

   “We’re getting a kitty,” Sirius added.

   “My sister swore never to speak to me again,” Lily just sort of threw out there.

   “Mary McDonald brought one of her mum’s old dresses to the shop to take in for her,” Peter told them.

   Of all the reports in the chorus that everyone had responded to Remus with, Remus zeroed in on Peter’s. “Merlin, Mary? I haven’t seen her since graduation. How is she doing?”

   “Pretty,” Peter answered eloquently.

   James pounced on the opportunity to encourage Wormtail into a relationship. “But how did it go? With her, I mean. Did you put the moves on her? Did you pick up where you left off with her being interested?”

   Once James had gotten together with his beautiful Lily and Remus and Sirius had finally woken up and realized they were in love with each other that left Peter as the only single Marauder. James knew it wouldn’t be long until he got a girlfriend—what wasn’t to love about that little rat bastard?—but he felt guilty that they excluded him when it came to double-dates.

   “’The moves’?” Lily asked doubtfully. “Since she definitely did have a little crush on you in Hogwarts, I don’t think putting on some bizarre act would really impress her.”

   At the time Peter had been dating a Hufflepuff girl so he put his feelings for Mary on hold until the Hufflepuff broke up with him at graduation. “I shoulda dated Mary back then,” Peter sighed.

   “Ah, but you can date her now! With no ‘moves’. Just bonafide Peter charm,” Sirius suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows before jamming a forkful of macaroni and cheese into his mouth. “Sheduche her wiffth that Gryffindor chivaffly.”

   Remus gave Sirius’ foot a bump under the table for talking with his mouth full and received an even harder bump back. There really was no teaching that man.

   “Well, I do have her measurements now…” Peter mused.

   Remus laughed into his wine with friends all around him did the same with fond rolls of eyes to go along with it all. The evening disappeared into that glass as time went on, dropping and refilling until the hands on the bold-face clock on the wall spun around and around, halting a bit earlier than they all would have liked.

   Even though adulthood meant unlimited drinking hours with friends, it also meant getting up early for work. They would party on weeknights from that time on since showing up drunk to a job where you were expected to keep the peace, heal the sick, research the unknown, or alter dressrobes was generally frowned upon.

   “Meet me for lunch tomorrow?” Lily offered Remus as they kissed each other’s cheeks goodbye. Peter had already been whisked away by the fireplace back to his flat and James had gone ahead of Lily since the last time they tried to floo together they ended up switching hair colors.

   James loved that Lily was a ginger, but he really didn’t like the red or the stigma attached to it on his own head.

   “Of course.” Lily’s lunch break from St. Mungo’s lined up quite nicely Remus’ short release from work, making it easier for them to get some quality time in. It was tough for such close friends to go from having literally shared dorms for seven years to be able to go days without seeing one another.

   Sirius got his cheek kisses in too before wishing Lily a safe trip home, satisfied with himself and the evening as a whole when she left him and Remus alone.

   The animagus took advantage of the moment almost immediately. His hands flew straight to Remus’ sallow hips and rested there while he nuzzled Remus’ freshly-shaved chin with his cheek.

   “Mm. Remus.”

   “Yes, Sirius?”

   “Take me to bed?” Sirius requested.

   Remus was more than happy to oblige.

   With an arm around Sirius’ waist, he helped him along that treacherous trek that was the three steps between their living room and bedroom. Maybe one day they’d live somewhere big enough for Sirius to actually have to walk up a flight of stairs to get laid.

   Until that glorious day, there was nothing more than a few trifling paces together to keep Remus from pushing Sirius’ back against the mattress and climbing on top of him. They didn’t even have to close the door—the flat was all theirs.

   Sirius arched his back and let his toes curl under when Remus bent down to kiss him. Remus’ lips gently parted against Sirius’, feeling his hot breath in swirl between them.

   The scratches and bruises from the previous night didn’t really seem to matter when Sirius let out a languid sigh, and Remus’ ankle felt instantly healed. He’d read somewhere that a person’s threshold for pain went up during sex and promptly tried to push the bookish thought away.

   There was a warm body in his bed and Remus vowed to let that consume his every thought.

   After a few more molten kisses, Remus shifted over to Sirius’ neck and pressed his lips up against the fading bruise of an old hickey. Sirius let out a groan when Remus began to suck on that sensitive skin once more.

   “ _Moony_.” Oh, hell.

   Remus couldn’t help but groan with him. Sirius was vocal, wanton, and Remus couldn’t get enough of it.  “Off,” Remus managed to articulate, tugging at Sirius’ old band shirt.

   Sirius couldn’t have possibly taken it off any faster if his life depended on it. He yanked off the fabric and tossed it to the side before starting at Remus’ clothes with a sudden urge Sirius felt to kiss every single inch of the other man’s body. He wanted to memorize Remus with his tongue even though he’d done it a thousand times before. He wanted to traverse that familiar ground, the place he called home.

   Remus—lanky, awkward Remus—slipped out of his shirt and trousers like he had always undressed by an exceedingly handsome man since birth. Especially when they first started going past snogging, Remus had been nervous about being completely rubbish at it. He had no idea it would feel so natural, like someone else or some wild force of nature was guiding his movements.

   “Tell me what you want,” Sirius rasped out, already pawing at the bulge in Remus’ briefs. “I want to give you what you want.”

   “You,” Remus answered simply. Wasn’t that obvious?

   Sirius chuckled before swinging a leg around Remus and shifting his way on top of the other man. “I sort of figured that when I noticed you were hard.”

    “You noticed I was hard? Wow, that Auror Academy training really has improved your perceptiveness. Quick! What am I thinking of?” Remus challenged with a mischievous grin.

   “Cock.”

   “Incredible. Now what am I thinking of?”

   “Cock again,” Sirius laughed before undoing his own trousers and rolling them off of his ankles.

   “Mind-reader,” he accused.

   Sirius shook his head. People called him the crazy one in the relationship.

   The musings of Sirius Black didn’t last long since—lo and behold—he was also hard for the man in his bed. “’M gonna shag you,” he decided before throwing himself back into the embrace, hands clamoring for purchase on Remus’ shoulders.

   Remus let out a noise that he hoped sounded encouraging, not really in control of the sounds that came out of him when Sirius’ chest was pressed up against his. Remus felt one of Sirius’ nipples perk up and immediately rubbed his thumb along the edge of it, hungry for more.

   Sirius, frotting down against Remus and those perfect, perfect fingers that pinched his nipple, didn’t want to break the contact to reach for the lube in their night stand. Instead, Sirius summoned it with his left hand while dragging down Remus’ underwear with his right.

   He stroked Remus’ cock the moment he saw it almost out of instinct. Remus happened to be irresistible when he was erect, bigger and wider in all of the right places.

   Well, Sirius didn’t really know what the ‘right places’ were since Remus was the only person he’d ever even considering hopping into bed with, but Sirius happened to like whatever his boyfriend had going on down there.

   With his free hand he circled two fingers around Remus’ arsehole and absolutely ate up the moans it elicited from Remus, the other man having taken to burying his face in Sirius’ shoulder so he could bite down on his soft, pale skin.

   “So hot,” Sirius got out before he slowly pushed those two fingers inside Remus, going deeper and deeper past rings of muscle that relaxed slightly after the initial intrusion. The heat inside Remus was overwhelming.

   Remus let himself be opened up, legs open and resting on either side of Sirius. “Padfoot,” he murmured against his skin while Sirius scissored his fingers open in that wet warmth of his.

   It wasn’t long at all until Sirius could slide his fingers in and out with ease, Remus’ cock throbbing with each small thrust. “Please.”

   “Hm?” Sirius asked absent-mindedly as he watched his fingers work Remus open while Remus’ cock stood unattended and quivering with need.

   “More,” Remus grunted before realizing he’d probably need to clarify. “Your cock inside me.”

   Sirius didn’t even have a witty remark for that one.

   He just lined Remus’ hips up with his in a hurry, getting the angle wrong a few times out of sheer eagerness before he finally sank into the other man. Sirius could feel his own heartbeat in the head of his cock as Remus’ arse clenched around him.

   “Fuck, Moony—Fuck, fuck,” he shuddered, barely able to keep himself from pushing deeper.

   “Yes,” Remus gasped, freeing his mouth from Sirius’ shoulder to rest his chin on it. His nails dug into Sirius’ back, urging him not to stop.

   Strong, toned arms around Remus, Sirius had no intention of stopping. He thrust forward with a loud keen, starting up a brutal rhythm that made Remus groan with him.

   “Sirius!” he called out, nails raking paths down his back.

   More determined than ever, Sirius kept up his quick pace. He thrust in and out recklessly before slipping a hand between Remus’ legs to stroke him too.

   All it took was a few more strokes and thrust, one well-timed bite down on Remus’ neck, and the low, possessive growl that escaped Sirius when he came for Remus to hit climax only seconds after him.

   “Sirius,” he panted, one hand firmly gripping his black tresses. “Sirius…”

   “I love you so much,” Sirius rambled on as he came down from his high. “I love you so much, Moony. You’re so fucking important to me.”

   “I love you too,” Remus replied. When Sirius said things like that—made him feel like the only man in the world—it left him vulnerable.

   Sirius slid out of him and Remus was enamored enough to dismiss the odd sensation for the sake of hearing more sweet nothings from Sirius.

   “I love you,” Sirius ranted on, curling up against Remus in the bed and making a nest out of the sheets. “I love you more than I’ve ever loved anything in my whole life.”

   Remus’ eyes were heavy. He clutched tightly to Sirius like a child to a stuffed animal, but couldn’t shake off the need for sleep after such a busy evening.

   He fell asleep to Sirius’ softening praises before the other man kissed his forehead and Sirius drifted off as well, more than content with the tucking-in he’d received.


End file.
